Olympics Timeline: Ancient Greece – 1940s From ancient Greece to the present day

Athletic contests are held at Olympia every four years, between August 6 and September 19. Records reach back as far as 776 B.C., but it is generally accepted that the Olympic Games had already been held for several centuries before that.

The Games originally consist only of foot races. Other events are gradually added, starting with wrestling and the pentathlon.

A.D. 394

Roman Emperor Theodosius I abolishes the Games, as part of a series of reforms against pagan practices.

The second modern Games are overshadowed by, and incorporated into, the Paris Exposition. 1,319 men from 26 countries compete in 75 events, although it’s not entirely clear—even to some of the participants—which events are actually part of the Olympics.

The first, last, and only Intercalated Games are held in Athens, as the Greeks plan to hold interim Games between Olympics every four years. While these bolster the Olympics’ flagging reputation, medals won here are considered unofficial by the IOC.

The 1906 eruption of Mt. Vesuvius requires the Games to move from Rome to London. For the first time, athletes march into the stadium behind their nations’ flags. There are more than 2,000 competitors in more than 100 events.

Italian Dorando Pietri needs to be helped across the finish line of the marathon, but is declared the winner before being disqualified in favor of Johnny Hayes of the U.S.

The “International Winter Sports Week” takes place in Chamonix, and is dominated by the Scandanavians. Two years later, this is retroactively given the status of the first Olympic Winter Games.

Due to an error in computing the scores, American Anders Haugen is placed in fourth in ski jumping, behind Norway’s Thorleif Haug. This is discovered in 1974, and Haugen is awarded the bronze in a special ceremony.

The IOC explains that “An amateur is one who devotes himself to sport for sport’s sake without deriving from it, directly or indirectly, the means of existence. A professional is one who derives the means of existence entirely or partly from sport.” They forbid such practices as compensating athletes for time taken away from work to compete, making it hard for working-class athletes to participate.

The Winter Games are plagued with warm weather, slowing some events and cancelling the 10,000-meter speed-skating race.

Gillis Grafström of Sweden wins the last of his three consecutive gold medals in figure skating; Norwegian Sonja Henie will equal that feat, winning the first of her three consecutive gold medals in figure skating here at the age of 15.

Alpine skiing events are held for the first time, but ski instructors are barred as being professionals. This leads to an Austrian and Swiss boycott, and to the decision not to have skiing events in the 1940 Games.

Canada finally loses an ice hockey match, as Great Britain takes the gold. Only a complete stickler would point out that almost all of the British players lived in Canada.

Germany and Japan aren’t invited, but a record 59 other countries attend.

Dutch athlete Fanny Blankers-Koen wins four gold medals, the equivalents of the ones Jesse Owens had won twelve years earlier. She holds the world records in the high and long jumps, but does not compete in those, as rules prohibit women from competing in more than three individual events.

Right-handed Hungarian Karoly Takcaz, a member of the national pistol-shooting team, had that hand shattered by a grenade in 1938. He teaches himself to shoot with his left, and wins the gold in the rapid-fire pistol event this year.